1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a processing device, to a control method for a processing device, to a program, to a processing system, and to a control method for a processing system in a system that has a host computer and a processing device that applies prescribed processes in response to commands from the host computer to media conveyed through a media transportation path inside the processing device.
2. Description of Related Art
Technologies for electromagnetically reading checks have been developed in order to improve the efficiency of check processing. Disposed along the paper transportation path through which the checks are conveyed, a check processing device typically has an image reading means (image scanner) that images the conveyed checks, a magnetic ink character reader (MICR reader) that reads information written in magnetic ink on the checks, a communication unit that sends the image data and MICR data captured by these readers to the host computer, and a printing means that prints information such as an endorsement on the back of the processed checks.
When a bank teller receives a check from a customer and passes the check through the processing device, the processing device typically images the check and reads the magnetic ink characters printed on the check in response to read commands from the host computer, and sends the captured image data and magnetic ink character data to the host computer when reading is completed.
A multifeed situation in which two or more checks are conveyed at the same time overlapping each other can also occur in a hybrid processing device that processes checks as they are conveyed.
In order to quickly detect multifed media, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2005-225581 teaches a hybrid processing device that has a paper length detection means and a paper thickness detection means disposed to the media transportation path that conveys the checks. The paper length detection means detects the length of the paper being conveyed, and the paper thickness detection means detects the thickness of the paper. The hybrid processing device also executes a first multifeed detection process that determines multifeeding based on whether the paper length detected by the paper length detection means exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and a second multifeed detection process that detects multifeeding based on whether the paper thickness detected by the paper thickness detection means exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
Demand has also grown for the ability to electromagnetically read information from the forms used for paying utility bills (referred to as “stubs” below) in the same way that checks are read. Because utility bills can also be paid by check, hybrid processing systems that can read both checks and different kinds of stubs are also being developed.
The thickness of such stubs can range from less than the thickness of the checks to more than twice the average check thickness, and stub sizes can range from about the same as a check to much larger or smaller than a check. There are also stubs that are approximately the same size as a check but nearly twice as thick.
FIG. 7 shows when a check 93 is conveyed through the transportation path of the hybrid processing device after a thick stub 91, but multifeeding has occurred and two checks 93 are conveyed together. In this example the length of the thick stub 91 is L1, the length of a check 93 is L2, and there is an offset s between the two multifed checks 93, L1≈L2+s, and the difference between L1 and (L2+s) is within the tolerance range of the detection values output by the paper length detection means of the hybrid processing device.
In this situation the first multifeed detection process of the related art that determines multifeeding based on whether the paper length detected by the paper length detection means exceeds a predetermined threshold value will not detect multifeeding because the multifed checks 93 are considered to be a single form of length L1.
In addition, because the combined thickness of the multifed checks 93 is substantially equal to the thickness of the thick stub 91, the second multifeed detection process of the related art that determines multifeeding based on whether the paper thickness detected by the paper thickness detection means exceeds a predetermined threshold value will not detect multifeeding because the multifed checks 93 are considered to be a single form of a predetermined thickness.
As a result, the hybrid processing device of the related art that detects multifeeding using this first multifeed detection process and this second multifeed detection process may wrongly determine that the two multifed checks 93 are a thick stub 91 and thus fail to detect multifeeding.